Is this the latest in On-Line Degrees?

If you have been following Ed-Tech, you already are aware of the rise and descent of the MOOC - Massive Open Online Course. (Unless you are Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and have been living in cave... and that wouldn't be so terrible!!!)

MOOCs were supposed to change the way Higher Ed (and all Ed for that matter) worked.  Classes on-line, free or minimal charge, take-it-when-you-want-to, and so on.  Unfortunately, it did not work so well. After about two years of "Mooc-ing", statistics started to show that out of the large number people who would start a course, only few finished it and most of those students already had university/college degrees.  And then there is the issue of (as I have been quoted as saying many, many times....) a boring lecture in person is even more boring on line!!!

So what what is the next entrant into on-line, Higher Ed?

Enter the "Nano-Degree." This is an industry driven, specialized degree that should take a student about 8-12 months to complete.  AT&T is teaming up with the on-line provider Udacity to offer this new program. 

(Here is an excellent article on the program)

Give it a read. When you are done, come back to the blog and let me know your opinion.  Is THIS where education is heading?  Is THIS what we have to prepare our students for?  Do we need to be giving our children the skills in order to learn on-line?

What do you think?

Regards...

Yossie

Yossie Frankel
Director - Consortium for Information and Academic Technologies
Member Schools:
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